50 Ways to Say I Love You
by Mordred LeFay
Summary: Modeled after the LJ 1 sentence community sentence fics see the two in my faves. ShikamaruTemari.


I don't know if I'm breaking some LJ rules by doing this (nabbing a format from the LJ one sentence community), but considering that'd be like me breaking some obscure law of another country (I haven't had an LJ since high school), I can't worry too much. I've read a couple SasuSaku ones of this, which were awesome, so I figured I'd try my hand at a ShikaTema. These are gonna be some mighty run-on sentences though.

50 Ways to Say I Love You

#01 - Comfort

Lying in the dark, feeling her heart beat against his chest and her breath against his neck, he thinks, _So _this_ is what it's like._

#02 - Kiss

"Fine, you won, congratulations" Temari sulked, staring at the shougi board and her defeat, "so what do I owe you?"

#03 - Soft

Sand ninja were not soft, they did not complain, they did not cry, but in Shikamaru's arms she let herself go.

#04 – Pain

Temari grunted with the force of another contraction, and Shikamaru, surprised that she wasn't cursing him out like he heard women did in these situations, remembered that the signature of a Sand nin was to get it done without complaint.

#05 - Potatoes

_Just eat it_, Shikamaru told himself, _just eat it and smile_, as he took a bite of the food Temari prepared, because she was standing there with a very heavy wooden spoon, and as pleasure exploded across his tongue she said, as if reading his mind, "If they knew that I could _really_ cook, my idiot brothers would expect me to do it all the time."

#06 - Rain

Temari claimed she hated the rain, the wetness and coldness, but watching her splash through puddles, trying to hide her giggles, he knew that this was one of those Konoha delicacies she secretly loved.

#07 – Chocolate

"Just when I thought you couldn't taste any sweeter," he murmured, sliding his tongue along her skin.

#08 – Happiness

"Goddamn troublesome woman," he said as she sauntered down the path toward where he leaned against the village wall, "I guess I'm your guide _again_."

#09 - Telephone

"Speaking. When? Is he all right? What kind of poison?_ What do you mean you don't know?_"

#10 - Ears

The earrings were hideous, with of all things pink rhinestones, and after enjoying the look on his face she said, "I'm kidding! Here!" and handed him the silver studs he'd had his eyes on for months.

#11 - Name

She never called him Shika-kun, and he never called her Tema-chan, but the Desert Flower thing, whispered in her ear when they were alone, got her every time.

#12 - Sensual

Caught in his Kage Mane no Jutsu, she strokes his face as he strokes hers.

#13 - Death

Drops of something salty are falling on his face, and he looks up and smiles through the pain, "Looks like I saved _your_ ass this time, Desert Flower."

#14 – Sex

"I thought you were saving yourself for marriage" "I said I was waiting for the man I'd marry; I didn't say I had to marry him first." "Oh. OH…"

#15 - Touch

No one seemed to realize that the reason she never touched him in public was because she couldn't keep her hands off of him when they were alone.

#16 – Weakness

She was the strong one, she always had been, but seeing him like this she felt something within her start to crumble.

#17 - Tears

Every time his eyes got a little watery she would call him crybaby, but after Asuma died, she just held him, and said nothing.

#18 - Speed

_Last time I made it in two in a half days_, he thinks, tearing ass across the sand, _This time I'll make it in two_, and wonders when he started sounding like Lee and Gai.

#19 - Wind

The forest had been leveled, and with a smug smile Temari closed her fan and said, "Looks like I saved your ass, crybaby."

#20 - Freedom

He could sleep in, he could watch clouds alone again, he didn't have to babysit some bitchy Sand ninja day and night, he missed her already.

#21 – Life

Temari smiled down at the squirming, burbling bundle in her arms and said, "I think we should name him Asuma."

#22 - Jealousy

Even though she has nothing to fear from Ino, and Ino never had a chance in hell, he can still feel the electric crackle between the women when they are in a room together.

#23 - Hands

They never show much affection in public, they don't even hold hands, but if you look close, you can see their pinkies are always linked.

#24 - Taste

"I don't know what you see in that lazy jackass," Kankurou mutters, but Temari only smirks and doesn't clue him in.

#25 - Devotion

He's stumbling through the gate, caked with sand and aching, thirsty, escaped another damn sandstorm in the Devil's Sandbox and she just sniffs like he forgot to set his alarm and snips, "You're late."

#26 – Forever

"She's gone, goddamn it, she's not coming back, how long are you going to stand here?" Kankurou hollers as their tears water the freshly turned dirt.

#27 - Blood

"Why did you jump in front of me? I could have defended myself, I saw the damn thing" (though that wasn't true) "you're dying for nothing you stupid, worthless…" and now she's sobbing, and doesn't notice that the flow is slowing to nothing and his eyes are already glassy and empty.

#28 - Sickness

The fever was making him dream insane things as he sweated out the remaining poison, but all she could do was hold his hand as he thrashed and screamed.

#29 - Melody

The crazy flute bitch is readying another attack, and just as Shikamaru knows he's done for, here comes a gust of wind carrying the scent of cactus flowers…

#30 - Star

"Daddy, what are stars made of?" his youngest asks from her place on his knee as they look up at the sky, and he locks eyes with his wife and says, "Love."

#31 - Home

After all this time he realizes that home isn't Konoha or Suna, but wherever she happens to be at the time.

#32 – Confusion

"You're what now?" he asked, though he must have heard her, so Temari moved her arms in a rocking, cradling motion, figuring if pantomime didn't work, nothing would.

#33 - Fear

The sandstorm had raged all night, people were still missing, and Temari stood at the window of the high tower, wringing her hands and scanning the horizon for a sign of movement, "Where is he?"

#34 - Lightning/Thunder

Of course they just had to _all_ crawl in bed with them, because the "booms are scary!" how troublesome… but he was smiling anyway.

#35 - Bonds

He couldn't believe she wanted to take his last name, but she figured no one would believe they were married otherwise.

#36 - Market

"Ooh Temari," Ino said, "come see this!" and instead of the monstrosity Temari expected the girl to lead her to, she clapped her eyes on the most beautiful wedding dress she'd ever seen.

#37 - Technology

She wanted to rip the tubes out of him, because they looked like they were attacking him rather than saving him.

#38 - Gift

Their hands were in the air, Temari cringing, then agape as she heard him say, "I quit. My chakra's spent anyway."

#39 - Smile

"You know, she never smiled much before she met you," Gaara said.

#40 - Innocence

_Hah, I've got this twirp_, she thought, _I'm far outside his range, I knocked down that parachute, the sun's against him now and all I need to do is—_and that was when she froze, her muscles betraying her, and saw the satisfied smirk on his face.

#41 - Completion

As the elderly couple sat side by side, watching their grandchildren tear around the yard, the man turned to the woman and said, "Yup, it pretty much turned out just how I planned it," and yelped as she whacked him with her little hand fan.

#42 - Clouds

"You're right," she said, her head pillowed on his chest as they lay on their backs on the grass, "this is relaxing."

#43 – Sky

_This bitch is good_, Shikamaru thought to himself as he watched her draw another line in the sand with her fan; he checked the position of the sun and finished the thought, _but I'm better_.

#44 - Heaven

Shikamaru cannot believe that this woman, this _goddess_ walking down the aisle toward him is here for him, and only when she takes his hand and squeezes it is he reassured that she's real, this is really happening, and this time he's not waking up alone.

#45 - Hell

If only they hadn't dragged their feet, they could be on the same side of this war instead of facing off again, and this time there could be no forfeiture.

#46 - Sun

_Just a few minutes more_, he thinks as he watches the sun move across the sky, Temari leaning on her fan, bored, and he readies one more Kage Mane no Jutsu.

#47 - Moon

The pale light of the moon illuminated the greenhouse as Shikamaru watched and waited for the cactus bloom to fall into his hands.

#48 - Waves

It was the first time Temari had seen the ocean, and Shikamaru was satisfied that, for the first time, she was unable to hide her childlike wonder.

#49 - Hair

Ino drunkenly eyed Shikamaru's pineapple stalk of a ponytail, then Temari's four sprigs, and slurred, "You two's kids are gonna have the weirdest hair _ever_."

#50 – Supernova

Temari's rages made even his mother look as timid as a doe, but when that passion was directed elsewhere, no one in Suna could sleep, least of all Shikamaru.


End file.
